


Let Sleeping Fools Lie

by Sladeckta



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Lance is a twin, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Neutral pronouns for Pidge, Nightmares, Rated M for language, Zombie AU, because theres nothing gayer, earbud sharing, hes looking for shiro anyway, its fine he doesn't really care, kinda klangst, lance's family is a traveling caravan in the zombie apocalypse, maybe ill turn this into something, random backstory because i think too hard about things, they kind of just abducted keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 12:25:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16241573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sladeckta/pseuds/Sladeckta
Summary: Amidst the zombie apocalypse, Lance has managed to find peace and quiet for himself. Or so Keith thinks until he decides to join him.





	Let Sleeping Fools Lie

_Keith stared down at his gloved hands. Thin fingers flexed, cracking under the raindrops drizzling over him. He was kneeling, unable to look away from his hands. Hands that looked as if he had been clawing at concrete. Nails chipped, broken, and split. The backs of his gloves were covered in mud. The palms, however, were covered in blood._

_No, this was wrong. It wasn’t Keith’s blood._

_Then he felt it, heavy in his lap. Looking past his hands, he realized it was Shiro’s head, his face facing the sky on his knees. His skin was like paper, thin and colorless. Tired eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping. But Keith knew._

_He knew Shiro wasn’t sleeping._

_Keith curled forward, shielding Shiro’s face from the rain._

_“Shiro. . .” He heard himself croak out. But it was strange. Like he wasn’t completely in control of his own thoughts and actions._

_Keith was not gifted with a response. He placed a gentle hand on Shiro’s freezing cold cheek._

_Before Keith could even think to react, Shiro had lunged up, an inhuman shriek leaving his throat. Eyes glassy and teeth pointed, straight for his throat-_

Keith shot up with a shout, very gracefully cracking his skull on the underside of Lance’s bunk. A second shout followed by a groan as he held his head.

Fuck, again?

He exhaled and rolled off the bottom bunk, pulling a hoodie and sweats on.

Clearly, he wasn’t getting any sleep tonight. He took a glance over at Lance’s bunk, mildly surprised to find it empty. He had absolutely no idea what time it was, but it was somewhere during the hours of "I’m Still Awake For Some Reason" and "There Are People Who Wake Up Before I go to Sleep."

Keith maneuvered around one of Lance’s cousins. He scooped up a nephew that had tumbled to the floor in the night. Keith placed the child back on the bed with his cousin and stepped out of the camper and into the ring of various vehicles they used for protection.

Lance was the only one out here so late. Clearly he’d been out here a while, seeing as the fire was out now. Keith almost didn't see him lying on the ground like that, but he could just sense him there. Not to mention the moon helped a bit. Just enough to barely see Lance’s form. Keith walked over and sat a couple feet away.

“Have you slept at all?” Keith asked, voice rough and sounding vaguely irritated but only to mask how concerned for Lance’s health he actually was. Even though he had only known this boy for like, three days.

Lance sighed and moved one of the ears to his headphones so he could hear Keith. Said boy barely resisted rolling his eyes. How considerate.

“Nah. Not tired.” Then he cringed.

Not even Lance believed that.

Keith frowned. For half a second he wondered if he got the same nightmares he had. He dismissed the thought immediately.

“. . . It’s just been a long time since someone has slept in the bunk you’re using.”

Keith looked over at him.

Lance was lying on his back, staring up at the stars. His brows were furrowed and a small frown was on his face. Dressed in a blue hoodie and jeans, he looked the same as he did before Keith even went to sleep. He hadn’t even bothered to change?

Keith frowned and shifted slightly closer. “. . . Sorry.” He apologized.

Lance fixed his serious stare on Keith’s face. The poor gay's entire focus was on keeping his face neutral and non-tomatolike. He’d never seen the Cuban boy look that intense before. Granted, they barely knew each other, but still.

The normally hyperactive knuckle-headed sharpshooter being contemplative and serious? It was unnerving.

Keith dug around in his pockets and pulled out a coin. It was too dark for him to tell if it was a penny or not, but regardless, he flicked it in Lance’s general direction.

“Wh- hey!” The Cuban blurted.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Keith couldn’t keep the victorious smirk off his face. He broke through that weird serious haze Lance was under, even if for just a second. 

Lance huffed and was quiet for a moment.

“. . . I had a twin sister.” He said softly.

Keith was pretty sure he stopped breathing. Oh fuck this was not what he thought the boy was thinking about.

Keith swallowed and said nothing, waiting for Lance to continue.

“. . . She died how you’d normally expect in the galrapocalypse. Held her in my arms under the stars. We both had decided to be astronauts when we grew up so we could explore them, together.”

A small sniffle and the slight movement of a hand to the face from Lance was all Keith needed to inch closer still. Until their legs touched at the knees. Not a lot. But enough for Lance to know Keith was there for comfort if he so wished.

“She had shoved me out of the way of a galra and-” He broke into another sob. 

Keith hesitantly laid down next to him, bending his arm behind his head and rolling on his side to face Lance. His hand was lightly placed on the blue-eyed boy’s left forearm.

“If it would make you feel better, I can sleep on the floor-?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Keith pursed his lips. “I really don’t mind sleeping on the floor. I’ve done it for the last year and a half.”

“Yeah, but you don’t need to anymore!” Lance huffed. “Aelita would punch me if I made you sleep on the floor because of something like that. And, I’m not like, mad at you or anything. But It’s just hard. When I hear you roll over, I think for just a split second that she’s the one in that bunk. That I’m gonna lean over the side and hit her with a pillow again to wake her up. But I’m not. I’ll never-”

Lance at that point couldn’t keep it together any longer, lifting his arms to cover his face and sob.

Keith watched the boy’s body tremble violently and slowly slipped an arm around his waist in a half-hug, his head coming to rest lightly on Lance’s shoulder. The taller boy didn’t seem to mind, in fact, Keith was pretty sure he wasn’t crying as hard as he was a second ago.

“. . . My brother just. . . disappeared.” Keith murmured into Lance’s shoulder. “He had gotten injured- bitten. On his arm. I was supposed to be keeping watch that night so he could try and get some rest. But I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was gone. He didn’t take anything with him, if he left on his own. He could have been taken somewhere and killed. He could have just left so I wouldn’t have to see him-”

Keith took in a shuddering breath. Nope. He was not losing his shit right now.

Lance was quiet again.

“. . . My point is that we’ve both lost someone.”

Keith paused then started to immediately backtrack.

“N-Not that it’s on the same level, I mean, I still think Shiro is out there. He’s too stubborn to just. . .” Realizing he was just digging himself deeper into the hole he was in, Keith snapped his jaw shut with an audible clack.

A firm weight rested itself around Keith’s shoulders and he blinked before flushing what he was sure was an extremely unattractive shade of cherry. Lance had lazily draped an arm around him to return the comfort.

“. . . I would say that you have it worse.”

Keith looked up at him in surprise and was met with stunning blue eyes.

Lance continued. “I’m serious. Even if she died a gruesome death, at least I know she’s at rest now. You have no idea what happened to Shiro. That’s so much worse.” 

Keith had never really thought of it like that, but he guessed it was true.

“I don’t know. I mean, my whole reason for fighting is to get him back. If it turns out he’s d-” Keith’s voice cracked and rather than finish his thought, he cleared his throat and stayed silent. His grip on Lance’s waist tightened.

“Hey, you’ll find him. We’ll find him. That’s the whole reason you’re staying with us, right? Traveling caravan~?”

Keith exhaled and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. _Well, not the whole reason. . ._

Lance exhaled and stared up at the stars. Keith felt him shift for a moment and he leaned away to give him room, propping himself up on his elbow.

“Here.”

Lance was handing him an earbud.

He had switched out his over-the-ear ones for a pair of earbuds so Keith could listen if he wanted.

Keith’s stomach warmed at the feeling that washed over him as he accepted the earbud and pushed it into his ear.

The music that greeted him was a lot softer than what he had been anticipating from Lance. A lot of acoustic guitar and piano. Soft voices whispering incoherent lyrics into his ear. Indie, probably. He sighed softly and laid his head down on his own arm, now eye level with Lance again.

Lance turned his head sideways to look at Keith.

Said Asian turned progressively redder the longer Lance stared.

“What?” He bit out, anxious under the oceanic gaze.

“Nothing, just. . .” Lance’s expression morphed from mild tension to hesitance before licking his thumb. And then he reached over and swiped at the side of Keith’s nose.

Keith was so shocked that he couldn’t manage to form a response before Lance smiled and went, “There. You had dirt on your nose.”

Slowly, his nose crinkled and he cringed. “Gross. I can’t believe you just put your nasty thumb in your nasty mouth and _fucking smeared your saliva all over my nose what the fuck!_ ” Keith furiously rubbed the sleeve of his hoodie against his face as Lance snorted out a laugh.

“You’re fucking welcome!” He responded, eyes finally bright again.

Keith held a muted glare with Lance as his laughter calmed.

They listened to Lance’s music in silence under the stars until they fell asleep, resting against each other once more.

* * *

A tent rustled and a young person with sandy blonde bedhead to their jaw stepped out of their tent.

They pushed their glasses up and regarded the sleeping teenagers just barely six feet away from their tent. It’s fucking freezing out here, why don’t they have any blankets?

They were mildly amused when their brain provided them with the thought that the fact they had no blankets was stranger to see than them cuddling. They pushed their large glasses up and draped a couple thick blankets over the pair of teens. Keith immediately relaxed under the weight and warmth, whereas Lance grumbled and stuck his leg out from under the blankets.

Pidge rolled their eyes and turned back around to return to their tent.

Let the fools sleep under the stars, for all they cared.

**Author's Note:**

> This was kind of just a result of me typing for two hours, so I guess if anyone's interested I can try and write something substantial regarding this au. Shrug.


End file.
